iPad eating away at PC market as Q4 growth underwhelms

Global PC shipments rose a “modest” amount — by 2.7 percent over the year before — in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to IDC Research, thanks to the increasing popularity of the Apple iPad and other tablets. Though the firm had predicted growth of 5.5 percent, the market did see shipments of 92.1 million PCs — the most ever. Global PC shipments for the entire year jumped 13.6 percent, “fueled by a strong recovery in the first half of the year,” IDC said. More details are here.